What's on your food?

I found this awesome tool to find out what pesticides are in each of the foods we most frequently eat.

I am posting it here as a means of information and inspiration. The latter particularly for those who garden mostly for flowers and ornamentals...perhaps this (coupled with rising food prices) will help give you the nudge to start growing some of your own food...

Value (the) Meal

Loved the logo and clever wording on it...no time to peruse their site too much now but I have a feeling I will love it as well. Thought I'd share...here is their site.

Straight from the horse's mouth

Below I copied OCA's (Organic Consumer's Association) Alert Update of the Week...it is worth reading, trust me.

Former Monsanto Lawyer Michael Taylor & the White House Food Safety Working Group In a recent issue of Bytes, we alerted you that former Monsanto lawyer Michael Taylor, who has been serving on President Obama's Department of Agriculture Transition Team, was "the leading candidate to staff the White House food safety working group."

Michael Taylor, who now promotes himself as a food safety expert, is a lawyer whose accomplishments include shepherding Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormone rBGH through Clinton's FDA as the Deputy Administrator for Policy. Alexis Baden-Mayer, OCA's Political Director, attended the Food Safety Working Group's Listening Session in Washington, DC, on May 13th, 2009.

Here's her report: If Michael Taylor was in the room, I didn't see him, but it's too soon to declare victory. We should keep reminding Secretary Vilsack, who chairs the working group, that we don't want Michael Taylor or any other former corporate lobbyists to be involved in crafting the government response to food safety. I had an interesting conversation with Bryce Quick, Deputy Administrator for the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Inspection Service since 2005, who greeted me by saying, "Organic, oh we're going to have problems with you!" He claimed to have visited an organic farm in Latin America several years ago that had major food safety issues although he wasn't sure if it was actually certified. When the meeting broke into small groups to craft policy "themes" it was clear that the conversation wasn't going to get too deep, I was placed in a group tasked with developing ways to "Allocate Resources Efficiently." I managed to get the group to find consensus around the idea that food safety solutions need to be scale appropriate, as regulations created for factory farms aren't going to be appropriate for small and micro producers who sell direct to consumers. What would you like Secretary Vilsack to know about food safety? Tell him here:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17541.cfm

Food Inc.

If you are not a reader but would like to learn more about how our food got to be the -sorry- state it is today, here's Food Inc.'s movie trailer...worth the money, I think.

The movie opens June 12.

Lastly, by going here you can make your voice heard by signing a petition to make school lunches healthier...oh come on! Go and do it! I did it and I am allergic to kids! ☺

Gold. Someone was throwing it out in the trash.

What we choose to eat & how it affects ALL of us

"Disease is an outcome."

Milt Friend, Wildlife Biologist--from J.A. Gingsburg article.


I was extremely surprised to find one, yes, ONE, evening news that actually for a fraction of a second hinted at what could be the cause of the swine flu outbreak. While I was busy doing something else I could hear snippets of the short story..."La Granja....Granjas Caroll partly owned by Smithfield Foods...blah blah blah..." hoping to hear more about it I watched other newscasts looking for a similar story.

That story never came.

It is almost as if we are purposely turning a blind eye to something any responsible human being who actually has blood in their veins and at least one working neuron would have recognized as an aberration to animal & human health. Yes grammar geeks, that was a horrendous run on sentence. I said that in anger, frustration and without stopping to come up for air.

I wonder if this is going to be one of those stories that money can make go away.

I wonder if this is just like the many Monsanto horror flicks one can only find on You Tube (if you haven't searched Monsanto on You Tube I urge you to do so). I wonder if this is going to be our one lucky time when we are able to subdue this virus...and then simply forget about it...only to crash head on with a much larger monster in a year's time.

It is inevitable.

If we keep on feeding the Walmarts (**) of the world, asking for larger, cheaper, faster foods without looking at their real long-term cost (water, soil & air pollution, financial chaos...not to mention social issues and all that chemically fattened garbage we are feeding ourselves...) another bigger, more potent outbreak will take place soon. And we'll have nobody to blame but ourselves. We are the ones pushing for cheaper protein sources after all, aren't we? I know times are hard, but I also know one too many people who buy toys they don't need, leave well beyond their means, and rather have a Fendi bag or fancy car than invest some dough into eating food that is good for all of us. Food that does not mean that people working and living near CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) have to face a present with a permanent stench in the air and a likely future plugged in to a chemo machine. I am not exaggerating. This is happening, and not only in underdeveloped countries, it is happening here now. And it will continue to happen until animal welfare, farmers well-being and our own priorities of where to spend our money are forever changed, and until we make an effort to understand that we are all subsidizing the cheap food most of us want to eat.

If these words written in frustration won't persuade someone who's never read anything about CAFOs or the current agricultural practices to start researching this issue now, perhaps this-much more cool, calm & collected-words will:

" 'Animals feel a need to exercise, stretch their limbs or wings, groom themselves and turn around, whether or not they have ever lived in conditions that permit this.' The proper measure of their suffering, in other words, is not their prior experiences but the unremitting daily frustration of their instincts."

Excerpt from Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma...response to the argument that animals on factory farms having never known any other type of life.

Walmart advocates, think about that when you sink your teeth on your Walmart-bought ham and cheese. While you are at it, think about CAFOs practice of amputating piglets' tails without anesthetics (pigs are separated from their mothers, at a much to young age, this CAFO managers think prevents them from following the instinct of sucking on each other's tail in absence of a mother's breast. A pig will only allow another piglet to suck on their mangled tail just once...you think about that pain.). If, instead, you are eating chicken that is not humanely raised and killed, you could think of their no less fun practice of de-beaking chickens and turkeys just so that they will be easier to manage in such a crowded conditions.

And if all that thinking about other people's and animals' welfare is not your thing and you are more the selfish type...then think about the fact that you are not just eating your choice of low-quality, cheap protein...you are also eating all the garbage it ate. And if I recall correctly...they are still being feed similar garbage to the the type that originated mad cow's disease...oh, and who can forget those deliciously sinful antibiotics! Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

If all of this does not at least plant a tiny seed of curiosity in you...then perhaps you should submit a job application with your masochistic butcher of choice. There are plenty to choose from.


(**) Walt-Mart side note- "According to documents released as part of a gender-discrimination suit against Walmart, researchers found that the average non-salaried Walmart associate in California gets nearly $2,000 in public-welfare benefits each year, including health care, food stamps, and subsidized housing. If all California's retailers lowered their wages and benefits to Walmart's level, that would pass an additional burden of $400 million to the state."
From Peter Singer's The Ethics of What We Eat

The End of Food

It's been long overdue, so here it is: some of the stuff I got from reading Paul Robert's The End of Food...here are some Cliff-Notes, but I cannot emphasize enough how much info you'd be missing if you don't read it for yourself as well.



The book's subject in a tiny microscopic nutshell is the evolution of food (think anthropology of food, really) and its possible (likely) dark future...it focuses most on what happened to our food production since the Industrial Revolution and-what I love most- he plays devil's advocate and understands that, just like with everything else in this world, things are not black or white, and that what makes sense in one area (e.g., vegetarianism) might not be as smart-or even feasible- practice in another (uh...e.g., ask an Eskimo about switching to a vegan diet...or even better, you try to survive eight months out of each year on a sea-veg-ice-cube-sucking-diet...kinda hard, eh?).



I'll do a chapter at the time with the quotes that rang home the most to me.


Before going into Chapter I, here is one quote from the prologue that I thought was great:

"Physically, food is so unsuited to mass production that we've had to re-engineer our plants and livestock to make them more readily harvested and processed (and even these updated materials remain so fragile they must be amended with preservatives, flavorings, and other additives). Our farming and manufacturing methods incur such enormous 'external' costs-from the farm-chemical runoff to the inequities of cheap labor to a choking surplus of calories-that the longevity of the system is now in serious doubt. Even the shift in cooking from the home to the factory, though it has left us free to engage in other pursuits, has also left us with far less knowledge of, and control over, what we eat."

Chapter I * Starving for Progress*

I am omnivorous, but from a purely animal lover point of view I find myself having the hardest time buying meat sometimes, even when I stick to buying humanely raised, free range, daily hugged, organic, ethically raised...you get the idea. From a nutritional stand point I get that there are many sources of protein in the veg kingdom (beans, edamame, spirulina, etc.) but in this chapter I found some info that was entirely new to me:

"...meat's real significance to human evolution was probably not the quantity of calories it contained but the quality of these new calories. Because animal and human tissues have the same sixteen amino acids (whereas most plant-based proteins contain just eight), animal converts readily into human: meat is the ideal building block for meat."

I am not saying to go out and only eat meat, after all industrialized meat production has serious drawbacks and although some find it efficient once it gets into our bodies, the road to produce it and get it to us is a highly ineffective one ("a cow needs to eat seven pounds of feed to gain a pound of weight" and that inefficiency is not even considering the oil costs to get the feed to the meat and the meat to our tables!). Nonetheless, I found this to be an interesting nutritional point-of-view.

Roberts also notes:

"All creatures choose feeding strategies that yield the most calories for the least effort (anthropologists call this optimal foraging behavior), and with fewer plant calories available, our ancestors naturally turned to animal foods as the simplest way to replace those calories. But what is significant is this: even if the move toward meat began out of necessity, the consequences went far beyond replacing lost calories. In the economics of digestion, animal foods give a far greater caloric return on investment than plants do. It might take more calories to chase down a frisky antelope on the veldt than to pluck fruit in the forest. But for that extra investment, Homo erectus earned more calories--far more."

In this chapter Roberts also covers the history behind how and when we began farming and what it meant then and now. For example, I had never considered of the societal impact that having a surplus of storable food could have. As early as 3500 B.C., Egyptian wheat farmers stored their surplus which became "accumulated wealth" that "radically transformed society." These extra rations provided trading material that formed today's commerce. In addition, because people did not have to constantly be hunting for food some of their time was free for other activities, "they could be builders, bakers, beer-makers; they could be soldiers and defend the new city-states, and priests and kings, to rule them."

I think that understanding how we got to be in the predicament we are in is crucial to planning our way out of this industrialized convenience-driven, sometimes unethical, environmentally costly, pesticide laden, inequitable, farmer exploiting, Walmart-loving situation we are in...yeah, I am not for the Walmarts of the world...more on that to come some other day...that's a whole other posting...and now I need to get my arse of this chair and go for a run.

Not done with Chapter I yet...more to come.

Later...eat well & enjoy your plantings!

Inspirational

Something I had saved in my 'favorites' for the longest time, thought I'd share. Enjoy!

Cool

I found the video Eat the View in Matron's blog...who in turn found it in someone else's blog...a wonderful thing...enjoy & think about it...

This Lawn is Your Lawn - Original Version from roger doiron

Plant & Seed order & Florida Citrus ramblings

So what does a gardener with a broken camera (and a broken heart) do?

Post older pics & order seeds online, of course!

BayTree Nursery

*Blackberries X3 : Navajo Thornless, Apache, & Dirksen Thornless
*Kiwi, Issai Hardy (Actinidia arguta 'Issai')

The blackberries all are suited for our Florida weather and these selections should provide us with an almost 3 month supply. Since birds are mostly attracted to red berries if they try the blackberries while not yet purplish/black they will eat unripe fruit and probably not bother with it again.

The kiwi is self-fruitful (most kiwis need at least one male and one female plant to produce fruit) which is great for someone with a limited sunny planting area. I read in my book Florida's Best Fruiting Plants--By Charles R. Boning, that hardy kiwis are a tad smaller than the most common fuzzy kiwi, but the hardy ones have "edible skin & superior flavor." So there. :-)

Burnt Ridge Nursery

Geraldi (I have seen it spelled a million different ways) Dwarf Mulberry

This mulberry is delicious, easy to care for and perfect for a small garden as it grows only to about 6 feet tall & it has a more bushy habit than the regular canopy-type mulberry trees.

Territorial Seed Company

Zamboni Broccoli Raab
Purple peacock broccoli
Sorrento Broccoli Raab
Giant Red Celery
Crisp Mint Organic Lettuce
Marshall Lettuce
Fennel
Beetberry –Strawberry spinach
Gypsy Pepper
Healthy Pepper
Señorita Pepper
Sunburst Zucchini
Flying Saucer zucchini
Taxi Tomato
Orange king Tomato
Gold Nugget Tomato
White Currant Tomato
Manitoba Tomato
Burbank Slicing Tomato

I got mostly organic & heirloom varieties of the plants listed above (mouth watering already). Ordering heirloom will allow me to break the cycle of seed-buying for these varieties and instead will continue the seed-saving cycle that I have started with other varieties already.

Swallowtail Garden Seeds (herbs)

Epazote

Lovage

Borage

Savory

Chervil

Now for the citrus rambling part--Here is my two cents on growing at least some edibles in your Florida garden, no matter how busy your life is: grow at least a couple of citrus plants! They require no huge investment money or time-wise, they only get better with age, they will fill your garden with their sweet perfume when in bloom, they are the host plant for several kinds of swallowtail butterflies, AND they will provide you with wonderful fruit!
My humble experience is that it can be challenging finding a nice sweet orange to grow here, I kind of gave up on my orange tree and now just see it as a vehicle to have more butterflies in the garden...but, all the lime & lemon trees I have planted have been a lovely surprise. Our limes can be just eaten out of hand, that's how sweet and wonderful they are. We have a few different varieties: Persian, Indian & two different Key Limes (one thornless)...they are all performing wonderfully with virtually no care (other than the occasional watering). Our Eureka lemon is also a winner, I get the same amount of juice from one of our lemons that I would get from 4 store-bought lemons. Not kidding. And the quality of something just picked is a million miles away from something that had to travel a million miles to get to you.

We bought all of the citrus from the regular box store...nothing fancy.

So if your excuse is that you have no time...well, you'll have to find a better excuse...particularly when one has to pay over a buck per lemon/lime these days!

Okidoki, off to pick some hibiscus for tea...did I tell you? Turns out that the Florida Hibiscus/Sorrel we are growing makes the most delicious (and prettiest, if I may add) tea in the world. To make the iced tea hubby likes, I also add a little bit of pineapple sage from the garden. It makes for a beautifully fruity and refreshing.

Hibiscus harvesting update: when grabbing the spent flower be sure to do so by its skinnier end (it would be the top of the bud-looking thing). This, I recommend after getting hurt with the tiny little hairs at the bottom of it. ouch.

Free Seed Planters

I am going to put to the test an idea I read about in the latest issue of Organic Gardening magazine.

I'll poke a drainage hole in the bottom of the egg shell, add seed medium and the seeds. I will also use the egg carton for support.

When the seedling is ready to be replanted in its permanent home, I'll plant it with the egg shell & all (after giving it a gentle squeeze to help the shell break down a bit). The shell will provide the soil with additional nutrients as it decomposes.

Eat Your Greens!

And I mean all of them!

I messed up my carrot planting (see illustration two pics below)...but that does not mean that we won't eat the darn things greens and all! (my normal carrots of the same kind were sweet and lovely tasting).

I use the fresh carrot greens like I would any other herb or veggie: sometimes as a side dish, sometimes in a tortilla with mushrooms, garlic & onions...you get the idea. Oh yeah, when I say tortilla, I am referring to the dish from Spain, not Mexico. The Spanish tortilla is made with eggs and anything you want to add to it. It is good!

If you'd like recipes to experiment I found this great site from the UK & below is a list that shows us how much of what we normally throw away is actually not only edible but delicious!


Edible Leaves:
Snap & Lima beans, beets, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, kohlrabi, okra, English peas, potatoes, sweet potatoes & radish. Eggplant leaves are edible as well but lack flavor.

Edible young leaves:
Southern Peas, onion, cucumber, & squash.

Here is one that really surprised me: parsley roots & cucumber stem tips...will have to experiment with those.

Eating Locally-Seasonally

Below is a list of the good stuff Floridians can expect to find at our local farmer's market within the next few months. By eating locally we eat better, fresher produce and support our small farming operations...If you'd like to get the 12 month list for FL visit the Natural Resources Defence Council site:

>http://www.nrdc.org/health/foodmiles/fullyear.asp?state=10

JULY
Asian Pears, Avocado, Bananas, Blackberries, Cantaloupe, Endive, Escarole, Grapefruit, Guava, Limes, Mangoes, Mushrooms , Okra , Onions , Oranges, Papaya, Passion Fruit, Peppers, Potatoes, Sweet Corn, Tomatoes, Watermelon

AUGUST
Asian Pears, Atemoya, Avocado, Bananas, Blackberries, Carambola, Grapes, Guava, Limes, Mangoes, Mushrooms , Okra , Onions , Papaya, Passion Fruit

SEPTEMBER
Asian Pears, Atemoya, Avocado, Bananas, Blackberries, Carambola, Eggplant, Grapes, Guava, Limes, Mangoes, Mushrooms , Okra , Onions , Papaya, Passion Fruit, Squash, Sweet Corn, Tangelos, Tangerines, Tomatoes

The MEATrix I & II...

These are cute films but they highlight very serious issues about the food we eat and feed our families...more to come tomorrow.

True Food

The more I read and research on this topic the more convinced I am that buying organic whenever possible is no longer a luxury but an investment in our future health. I much rather spend the extra buck on buying the stuff we don't grow at home than having to pay for meds a few years down the line.

Too many independent studies show that the use of hormones, pesticides, additives, genetically engineered food, etc. are indeed making us sick. Yes, nowadays we do live longer, but more is not better if -genes aside- we can't walk around due to early onset arthritis or we are literally plugged to something to help us stay afloat.

As for me, I can kiss goodbye that yummy and genetically engineered peanut butter pre-run-bike-swim PowerBar. Ugh!

Check out the link below...and learn more...

>http://www.truefoodnow.org/shoppersguide/guide_printable.html












If you are looking to eat more locally grown foods and learn more about availability in your area, here is a great resource...just plug in your zip-code and you'll be able to check the best places to buy local & fresh stuff.

http://www.eatwellguide.org/

The average food item travels 1550-2480 miles in the U.S.


–The WorldWatch Institute, "Home Grown," 2002

Stats taken from http://www.foodroutes.org/

You MUST see this video!

I got this Freedom Gardens video from my all-time-favorite blog: http://scarecrowsgarden.blogspot.com/


This video will make you take a second look at your yard and ask yourself some significant questions (I hope)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCPEBM5ol0Q